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NEWS: Blackmagic Design announces Blackmagic Camera Update 6.9

Blackmagic Design has announced a software update for its Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and 6K models that include powerful new studio camera features. Now users can connect to an ATEM Mini switcher and get control of the camera parameters, lens and tally light. ATEM Mini can control up to 4 cameras via the HDMI video connection and ensure all cameras are perfectly matched for a professional live studio workflow. Now the same Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera can work as a digital film camera and a studio camera.

Video control is available via the HDMI connection, as soon as users plugs the camera in. The record light becomes a tally light to make it easy see which camera is on air. The ATEM Software Control camera page has a camera control unit (CCU) style interface for adjusting and matching cameras. Move the CCU control vertically for iris and left to right to adjust black level. It's the same as a broadcast CCU. There are also controls for colour tint to balance the camera as well as focus, gain and shutter speed. Customers can even ISO record Blackmagic RAW in the camera for editing later.

The elegant design of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera packs an incredible number of high-end digital film features into a miniaturised, hand-held design. Made from lightweight carbon fibre polycarbonate composite, the camera features a multifunctional handgrip with all controls for recording, ISO, WB and shutter angle. Because it's an advanced digital film camera, the sensor is designed to reduce thermal noise allowing cleaner shadows and higher ISO. Plus, the large 5-inch LCD makes it possible to get perfect focus at 4K and 6K resolutions.

The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K model features a 4/3 image sensor with 4096 x 2160 resolution and an MFT lens mount, allowing you to capture wide dynamic range and Hollywood quality, digital film images in the palm of your hand. The MFT mount lets you use super compact, lightweight and affordable lenses allowing you to take the camera anywhere, even locations that are too hostile for larger cameras.

Featuring a larger 6144 x 3456 Super 35 sensor and EF lens mount, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K model lets you use larger EF lenses to create cinematic images with shallower depth of field, allowing creative defocussed backgrounds and gorgeous bokeh effects. This means that users can shoot in 6K and then, in post production, zoom and re-frame to allow wide shots and close ups to be created, all from a single camera – and without losing image quality.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras have an incredible 13 stops of dynamic range which means they preserve more detail in the lightest and darkest areas of an image than simple video cameras can. This means for example that you can set exposure for an indoor scene and still retain the details of bright outdoor light coming through a window.

The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera features dual gain ISO up to 25,600, which means both the 4K and 6K models are optimised to minimise grain/noise in images, while maintaining the full dynamic range of the sensor. The native ISO of 400 is ideal for scenes with on-set lighting. The dual gain is changed automatically so it's easy to capture great images when you don’t have time to set up lights.

Blackmagic RAW is a revolutionary new format designed to capture and preserve the quality of the sensor data from the camera. Video formats such as H.264 are highly compressed, plus they add noise and artefacts, causing original sensor detail to be lost. Blackmagic RAW eliminates this problem and gives you stunning images with incredible detail and colour throughout the production pipeline from camera to edit, colour and mastering. It also saves camera settings as metadata so you can set ISO, white balance and exposure in camera or override them later whilst editing, all without any loss of quality.

With the advanced Blackmagic OS, users get an intuitive and user-friendly camera operating system based on the latest technology. The interface uses simple tap and swipe gestures to adjust settings, add metadata and view recording status. You also get full control over advanced camera features such as on screen focus and exposure tools, 3D LUTs, HDR, metadata entry, timecode, Blackmagic RAW settings and more.